Cloud Computing, Social Media, and Confidentiality

Maria Pirrone, JD, CPA, and Joseph E. Trainor, PhD, CPA

The right to privacy is one of the most coveted individual rights. It refers to the concept that one’s personal information is protected from public scrutiny, or, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called it, “the right to be left alone.” Although the right to privacy is not expressly stated in the U.S. Constitution, the Fourth Amendment reflects the concern of some founding fathers that the Constitution did not go far enough to protect individual rights. It has been the subject of countless articles and has been studied, analyzed, and written about for centuries. Recently, however, Americans have been unable to read the news without seeing a headline that implies that this coveted right might have been violated. What is surprising is that these alleged violations have been committed by such notable national agencies as the IRS and National Security Administration (NSA).